This blog is written weekly by Dock David Treece, a registered investment advisor with Treece Investment Advisory Corp. It is meant to share insight of investment professionals, including Dock David and his father, Dock, and brother, Ben, with the public at large. The hope is that the knowledge shared will help individuals to better navigate the investment world.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The Biggest Heist in History

In 1987, when Alan Greenspan began his tenure as Federal Reserve Chairman under President Reagan, each American's share of the national debt was approximately $8,500. Now, 22 years, trillions of dollars, and four presidents later, the national debt per capita has ballooned to nearly five times its previous sum, now totaling about $40,000 per American.

This effectively means that since 1987, American taxpayers have been robbed of what has now amounted to trillions of dollars, making it the largest heist in recorded history. Since 1987 the funds of hard-working Americans have been embezzled by a select few by several means, their money distributed to the likes of Chrysler, GM, AIG, Goldman Sachs, and countless corporate executives.

Keep in mind, of course, that this new total excludes the obligations that may arise from bailout legislation passed during 2008 and 2009, as these bailouts, for the most part, gave the Treasury and the Federal Reserve permission to spend outrageous sums.

These agencies have, in turn, guaranteed a wide range of distressed securities, including mortgage-backed securities that contributed largely to the recently-deceased bubble in housing. However, since the government has not yet had to make good on any of these guarantees, their capital commitments are not reflected in national debt figures.

Many people, mostly bankers, would undoubtedly argue that the US government as a whole is to blame for this mounting debt, and it is true that the government's outrageous spending has indeed contributed. However, the true blame for our debt burden lies with the men who determined how to finance such spending.

Through bailouts, corruption, and simple loose money policies, these four banker-barons have fleeced American taxpayers in more ways than one. First and foremost, they have ballooned our national debt by enabling the governments exorbitant spending. Through their trickery, previously assumed to be banking-magic, they have heaved upon future generations the burden of unnecessary debt.

Moreover, thanks to their bubble-blowing monetary policies, these highfalutin pencil-pushers have depressed interest rates, thereby preventing Americans from earning a reasonable rate of return on their hard-earned savings.

Let's not forget that these men, in their most daring act to date, embezzled funds from American taxpayers for the sole purpose of aiding their banker-buddies on Wall Street. Through their accounting wizardry, they relieved many of their former colleagues of debt piled high from years of CDS Swaps and NINJA loans, only to rest that burden squarely on the shoulders of each and every American man, woman, and child.

One of our four crooks even went so far as to leave a paper trail revealing his complete awareness of how indefensibly he was acting, and felt the need to protect himself. In bailout legislation proposed in 2008 Treasury officials, including Paulson, penciled in a brief section giving themselves permission to operate without threat of review by an US court, thereby relieving themselves of any threat of liability or criminal prosecution (Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan, New York Times).

In 1838, banking magnate Mayer Amschel Rothschild proclaimed "Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws." The Rothschild's, of course, know better than anyone the powers inherent in the control of currency.

Many men, often from lower stations in life, have been hanged in this country within the last century, for stealing far less than the larceny these four filchers have committed against American taxpayers (Double Hanging in 1938, The Monitor-Herald, Calhoun City, Mississippi).

Of course, this terrible crime should come as little surprise. Our country's fathers foresaw actions like those taken by the Filching Four. In fact, Section 19 of the Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 specifically outlawed the debasing of US currency.

The punishment, it was decreed, for such a traitorous act, should be no less than death. This penalty, with its startling barbarity and beautiful simplicity, most certainly fits the crime perpetrated against the American people since 1987.

Dock David Treece is a stockbroker licensed with FINRA. He works for Treece Financial Services Corp.(http://www.TreeceInvestments.com/) and also serves as editor of the financial news site GreenFaucet.com and as a business commentator for the Toledo Free Press.

While Dock David's typical content includes commentary on recent economic or political events and trends within the global financial markets, those pieces in the "Dollars & Cents" category have been developed for the Toledo Free Press STAR edition for younger investors.

The information contained in these posts is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be used without outside verification, it should not be construed as investment advice.

About "Dock2"

Dock David Treece is a registered securities representative with FINRA, a registered investment advisor, a registered securities principal, and a financial operations principal. He works with Treece Financial Services Corp and Treece Investment Advisory Corp.

"Dock2" graduated from the University of Miami (FL) with a Bachelor's of Business Administration and a focus in Finance. He has worked in the investment business under the tutelage of his father since an early age, and also worked for several other financial firms including Franklin Templeton Investments and John Hancock Financial Network.